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I spoke in January 2026 with 150 high school students about career options. After explaining as a professor of education, health and behavior, I asked the students a simple question: Would you want to be a teacher?
鈥淲hy in the world would I want to be a teacher?鈥� one female student said.
鈥淢y aunt is a teacher and she works all the time 鈥� no thanks,鈥� a male student added.
Several students said it felt like teachers were doing everything: from teaching lessons and helping students through personal struggles to managing class disruptions and constantly adjusting to whatever else the day brought. Students also mentioned hearing teachers talk or feeling a from students and others.
These students鈥� observations . While nearly 20% of college freshmen said in 1970 that they were , less than 5% said the same in 2020, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Many teachers report low levels of job satisfaction, and young adults to become teachers.
Teacher pay penalty
Education researchers and labor analysts that teachers earn less than other people who also have college degrees.
This difference in pay is sometimes called the . This .
In 2024 the teacher pay penalty reached its , with teachers for every dollar earned by other college graduates.
Average annual public recently have ranged from about and to more than and .
Nationwide, teachers on average earn about .
National analyses show that teaching has steadily lost ground in wage competitiveness compared with other over the past few decades.
Even as some states have enacted , these wide disparities persist.
Expanding expectations, rising strain
Teaching once centered primarily on academic instruction. Particularly through much of the 20th century, teachers鈥� roles were largely defined by planning lessons, instructing on different subjects and assessing student learning.
In addition to teaching core subjects, many teachers are now often expected to help support students鈥� , address complex , that spill into classrooms, such as students physically fighting, and manage tasks.
The COVID-19 pandemic intensified many of these responsibilities, as teachers navigated remote instruction and students鈥� heightened .
At the same time, concerns about school safety, including the reality of and other kinds of violence, to teachers鈥� emotional .
Teachers are far more likely than other college-educated professionals to .
Job available
Approximately 50% of in October 2024 that they feel their school is understaffed. And 20% of public school leaders reported teacher vacancies during that same time period.
In January 2022, shortly after the pandemic, of public schools reported at least 5% of their teaching positions were vacant that month. Approximately 51% of schools were the cause of these vacancies.
A 2025 national teacher shortage overview estimates that roughly 1 in 8 teaching positions nationwide are either unfilled or staffed by someone not fully , meaning a teacher working outside their licensed subject area or grade level, for example.
When positions are filled this way, the classroom will still have a teacher present, but not necessarily one formally prepared to teach a specific subject or group of students. This can result in greater reliance on substitutes or staff.
When teaching became women鈥檚 work
History helps explain why teaching looks 鈥� and pays 鈥� the way it does today.
In the early 1800s, teaching was a .
But as the U.S. industrialized in the late 1800s and early 1900s, higher-paying drew many men away from classrooms.
For many women at the time, teaching offered one of the few respectable professional careers available. It provided steady income and a measure of independence when many other professions .
Labor force participation for women expanded significantly during the 1960s, 鈥�70s, and 鈥�80s, as legal and social . Yet the pay and public standing of teaching does not seem to have .
By the early 1900s, women made up . In 2024, 77% of .
Nationwide, the gender wage gap has narrowed in the past few decades. Still, women in the U.S. of what men make.
Who will teach the next generation?
Each year, more than step into classrooms. But the overall pipeline has narrowed since the early 2010s, with enrollment at declining sharply and only partially .
Today鈥檚 students are coming of age in a landscape where teaching competes with many other college-degree professions that may offer higher pay, more predictable hours or clearer career advancement.
College students are often weighing financial security, mental health and long-term sustainability as they imagine their future.
Research consistently shows that compensation, and in job retention. When those elements erode, so too does workforce stability.
Stability is the key as students are evaluating teaching 鈥� not as a calling, but as a potential career within a competitive labor market.
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